British Broadcasting Corporation Gaza Documentary Ruled a 'Major' Violation of Broadcasting Regulations, Says UK Media Regulator
The public service broadcaster committed a "serious breach" of broadcasting rules by not revealing that the presenter of a documentary about the Gaza situation was the offspring of a Hamas representative, according to regulatory body Ofcom.
An investigation by Ofcom into the documentary titled Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone has determined that the documentary was "substantially inaccurate".
The chief executive of the broadcaster had previously apologised, saying there had been "a significant failing in relation to factual correctness".
Ofcom has ordered the corporation to transmit a evening statement about its decisions.
"As this represents a major infringement of our rules, we are directing the broadcaster to air a statement of our conclusions against it on the BBC's second channel at 9pm, with a timing to be confirmed," the regulator stated.
'Risk to Erode Credibility'
The watchdog's statement declared: "Our probe determined that the documentary's lack of disclosure that the presenter's father occupied a role in the Hamas-run administration was substantially inaccurate.
"It meant that the audience did not have vital facts which may have been highly relevant to their evaluation of the voice and the content he provided.
"Confidence is at the core of the connection between a broadcaster and its public, especially for a national broadcasting corporation such as the BBC.
"This error had the risk to undermine the significantly high degrees of credibility that viewers would have put in a documentary produced by the BBC about the conflict in Gaza."
The programme was removed from the BBC's streaming service in last February after the boy's personal associations were revealed, and in the month of July an internal BBC review found it infringed the corporation's content policies on accuracy.
A BBC spokesperson commented: "The Ofcom ruling is in line with the findings of the corporation's inquiry, that there was a serious error in the film in relation to the BBC's Editorial Guidelines on truthfulness, which corresponds to Rule 2.2 of the regulator's media standards.
"We expressed regret for this and we comply with the authority's determination in its entirety. We will comply with the directive as soon as the schedule and wording are finalised."
